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All That Jazz (1979)
A rush on the surface but not much below
I'll start with the things I don't like, which unfortunately with this film is it's heart. If Gideon is the surrogate for Bob Fosse than there simply isn't much there. As viewers we learn that Gideon has core traits: he is a womanizer, he is an absent father (but his daughter still loves him and he loves her), he prioritizes his work over his health, and he is a generally cold (but charming) artist.
We are introduced to this character, learning all his traits, in the first few minutes, and no growth or change occurs throughout the movie. He is who he is. So what does that leave us, the viewer with for the rest of the run time? As it happens, quite a bit; at least on a technical level.
Music pulses through the movie and connects each dream like cut as Gideon travels between the after life and his artistic life, Fosse creates a wholly unique energy as we follow Gideon balancing his artistic life of broadway showings with stand up comedy specials (which for the record takes up a substantial part of the movie but in my opinion dosent have a clear connection to the rest of the film thematically). A sense of over exertion is felt through Gideon, we feel the toll on his body even as he chooses to ignore it, Fosse shows the strain Gideon's artistic work is having on the women he sleeps with and his family as he fails to consider or make time for them on a regular basis.
One can't forget the choreographed dance sequences which are sprawling, seemingly complex, and rhythmically rich; even someone like me with very little familiarity with cabaret/Broadway musicals. A highlight is an audition at roughly the centre point of the movie which starts more traditional but ends in a stylistic area of sexual exotica, with nudity to boot. The music is expertly written on a melodic note and a great sense of progressiveness and change of tempo; it matches the radicalness of the numbers visuals. Very high praise.
There are more sequences, and to be blunt one bookends the movie in death, but I was left struggling to find a connection to this movie that goes deeper than the surface traits displayed from Gideon at the start and throughout the film. Fosse chooses not to explore why or what draws these traits out of Gideon (or himself) and instead chooses to frame them through the lens of what I believe to be false vulnerability, ultimately through a certain egotistical brain the traits of Gideon can be used to angle themselves through admiration (I get lots of women, I'm such a workaholic, the "cold genius"). Even his flaws as a father aren't truly felt because the connection with his daughter is seemingly taken in stride by the young actress, she seems completely charmed in his presence and vice versa, if it wasn't explicitly shown that Gideon isn't an attentive father would we as an audience even know? What makes Gideon tick is simply unexplored, which is a disappointment because we spend practically every scene with him, a shell of a human.
To summarize All That Jazz is a rush on the technical side, to people steeped in musicals or music in general, a must see. The experience as a whole is wholly unique. But unfortunately a lack of emotional honesty and a soulless lead makes it hard to take this movie seriously beyond the surface of choreographed dances, strong musical numbers, and dreamy, atmospheric editing.
All That Jazz lacks a heart, and it doesn't seem aware because it lacks curiousity.